Teaching Plan Information

Presentation

Borders, Identities and Geopolitics

Through the disciplinary lens of political geography, this course examines the changing role of territorial borders in the contemporary world. Particular attention is paid to the current global hardening of border controls vis-à-vis migration dynamics as well as to the proliferation of walls and fences aimed at selectively regulate human (and other types of cross-border) flows. The course has a strong focus on bordering dynamics in the European Union and on the role they play in identity shaping processes. 

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course students will be able to:

• Analyze the complexity of bordering processes
• Interpret the global dimension of political discourses on securitization
• Identify and compare different wall building processes
• Understand the global dimension of human interaction with borders/walls
• Discover diverse/divisive narratives about walls and borders
• Interpret the importance of walls/borders in shaping group identities

Sustainable Development Goals

• SDG 1,2, 3, 8, 10, 16

Prerequisites

Global Studies. 3rd year students

Contents

Contents

• Introduction to the course
• Introduction to Geopolitics  
  • Introduction to Geopolitics -Chapter 1- pp17-24- (Flint, 2017)
• What is a Border? Borders and Bordering (TOPIC 1)
  • A very bordered world (Diener and Hagen, 2012)
  • Making sense of borders (Popescu, 2011)
  • Border identities: Theoretical approach to the study of self from bordering processes (Español et al. 2021)
• Physical and political rebordering of the European Union (TOPIC 2)
  • The Autoimmunity of EU’s deadly b/ordering regime (Van Houtum and Bueno, 2020)
  • In private hands? the markets of migration control and the politics of outsourcing (López-Sala and Godenau, 2020)
  • Humanitarian Borders . Unequeal mobility and saving lives (Pallister-Wilkins, 2022)
• EU refugee crisis, borders and xenophobia (TOPIC 3)
  • The refugee crisis from a historical perspective (Lucassen, 2018)
  • Ever closer union. Rebordering the EU (Marshall, 2018)
  • Scaling rights: the ‘Turkey deal’and the divided geographies of European responsibility (Bialasiewicz and Maessen, 2018).
• Borders, identity and islamophobia.  (TOPIC 4)
  • Rejecting Al-Andalus, exalting the Reconquista (García-Sanjuán, 2018)
  • Geographies of Islamophobia (Najib and Teeple Hopkins, 2019)
  • Metaphors of invasion: Imagining Europe as endangered by Islamisation (Gualda, 2021)
• The Spanish-Moroccan Border (TOPIC 5)
  • The Ceuta Border Peripeteia. Tasting the Externalities of EU Border Externalization (Ferrer-Gallardo and Gabrielli, 2022)
  • Deaths, borders, and the exception: Humanitarianism at the Spanish–Moroccan border (Gazzoti, 2020)
• Borders wars on and in the final frontier (TOPIC 6)
  • Out of this world (Dodds, 2021)
  • Critical Geopolitics of Outer Space (Klinger, 2021)
  • Space (Marshall, 2021)

Teaching Methods

The course will be predominantly based on the discussion of compulsory readings.

Students will be asked to:

• write a research paper (2000/2500 words) on a contemporary border conflict or bordering process
• orally present their research paper
• discuss and write 2 brief essays (400/500 words long) about the compulsory readings
• Take a final exam based on course materials

Detailed information about the research paper, essays, exam and main deadlines will be provided via Aula Global and during the introductory session.

Evaluation

• Research paper – 25%
• Oral presentation about the reserach paper – 15%
• 2 Essays- Reading discussions -20%
• Final exam – 35%
• Class Participation - 5%

Students who fail to obtain a final grade of 5 will be allowed to take a resit exam (and obtain a maximum of 70% per cent of the grade) . Students will only be allowed to take the resit exam if they have previously submitted the research paper and the regular exam. 

Bibliography and information resources

• Bialasiewicz, L., & Maessen, E. (2018). Scaling rights: the ‘Turkey deal’and the divided geographies of European responsibility. Patterns of Prejudice, 52(2-3), 210-230.
• Diener A. and J. Hagen. (2012). Borders: A very short introduction. Oxford University Press, pp. 1-18.
• Dodds, K. (2021). Border Wars. The conflicts that will define our future. Penguin Random House
• Ferrer-Gallardo X. and L. Gabrielli. (2022). The Ceuta Border Peripeteia. Tasting the Externalities of EU Border Externalization. Journal of Borderlands Studies
• García-Sanjuán, A. (2018). Rejecting al-Andalus, exalting the Reconquista: historical memory in contemporary Spain. Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies, 10(1), 127-145.
• Gazzotti, L. (2020). Deaths, borders, and the exception: Humanitarianism at the Spanish–Moroccan border. American Behavioral Scientist, 64(4), 408-435.
• Gualda, E. (2021). Metaphors of invasion: Imagining Europe as endangered by Islamisation. In Europe: Continent of Conspiracies (pp. 54-75). Routledge.
• Kawtar Najib & Carmen Teeple Hopkins (2019): Geographies of Islamophobia, Social & Cultural Geography, DOI: 10.1080/14649365.2019.1705993
• Klinger, Julie Michelle. "Critical Geopolitics of Outer Space." Geopolitics. (2021): 661-665.
• López-Sala, A., & Godenau, D. (2020). In private hands? the markets of migration control and the politics of outsourcing. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 1-19. 
• Lucassen L. (2018) "Peeling an onion: the “refugee crisis” from a historical perspective." Ethnic and Racial Studies 41.3 (2018): 383-410.
• Marshall, Tim. (2018). Divided: Why We're Living in an Age of Walls. Eliott and Thompson.
• Marshall, T. (2021). The power of geography: Ten maps that reveal the future of our world. Simon & Schuster
  Pallister-Wilkins, P. (2022). Humanitarian Borders: Unequal Mobility and Saving Lives. Verso Books
• Van Houtum, Henk & Rodrigo Bueno Lacy (2020) The Autoimmunity of the EU’s Deadly B/ordering Regime; Overcoming its Paradoxical Paper, Iron and Camp Borders, Geopolitics, 25:3, 706-733

Teaching Plan Information

Presentation

Borders, Identities and Geopolitics

Through the disciplinary lens of political geography, this course examines the changing role of territorial borders in the contemporary world. Particular attention is paid to the current global hardening of border controls vis-à-vis migration dynamics as well as to the proliferation of walls and fences aimed at selectively regulate human (and other types of cross-border) flows. The course has a strong focus on bordering dynamics in the European Union and on the role they play in identity shaping processes. 

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course students will be able to:

• Analyze the complexity of bordering processes
• Interpret the global dimension of political discourses on securitization
• Identify and compare different wall building processes
• Understand the global dimension of human interaction with borders/walls
• Discover diverse/divisive narratives about walls and borders
• Interpret the importance of walls/borders in shaping group identities

Sustainable Development Goals

• SDG 1,2, 3, 8, 10, 16

Prerequisites

Global Studies. 3rd year students

Contents

Contents

• Introduction to the course
• Introduction to Geopolitics  
  • Introduction to Geopolitics -Chapter 1- pp17-24- (Flint, 2017)
• What is a Border? Borders and Bordering (TOPIC 1)
  • A very bordered world (Diener and Hagen, 2012)
  • Making sense of borders (Popescu, 2011)
  • Border identities: Theoretical approach to the study of self from bordering processes (Español et al. 2021)
• Physical and political rebordering of the European Union (TOPIC 2)
  • The Autoimmunity of EU’s deadly b/ordering regime (Van Houtum and Bueno, 2020)
  • In private hands? the markets of migration control and the politics of outsourcing (López-Sala and Godenau, 2020)
  • Humanitarian Borders . Unequeal mobility and saving lives (Pallister-Wilkins, 2022)
• EU refugee crisis, borders and xenophobia (TOPIC 3)
  • The refugee crisis from a historical perspective (Lucassen, 2018)
  • Ever closer union. Rebordering the EU (Marshall, 2018)
  • Scaling rights: the ‘Turkey deal’and the divided geographies of European responsibility (Bialasiewicz and Maessen, 2018).
• Borders, identity and islamophobia.  (TOPIC 4)
  • Rejecting Al-Andalus, exalting the Reconquista (García-Sanjuán, 2018)
  • Geographies of Islamophobia (Najib and Teeple Hopkins, 2019)
  • Metaphors of invasion: Imagining Europe as endangered by Islamisation (Gualda, 2021)
• The Spanish-Moroccan Border (TOPIC 5)
  • The Ceuta Border Peripeteia. Tasting the Externalities of EU Border Externalization (Ferrer-Gallardo and Gabrielli, 2022)
  • Deaths, borders, and the exception: Humanitarianism at the Spanish–Moroccan border (Gazzoti, 2020)
• Borders wars on and in the final frontier (TOPIC 6)
  • Out of this world (Dodds, 2021)
  • Critical Geopolitics of Outer Space (Klinger, 2021)
  • Space (Marshall, 2021)

Teaching Methods

The course will be predominantly based on the discussion of compulsory readings.

Students will be asked to:

• write a research paper (2000/2500 words) on a contemporary border conflict or bordering process
• orally present their research paper
• discuss and write 2 brief essays (400/500 words long) about the compulsory readings
• Take a final exam based on course materials

Detailed information about the research paper, essays, exam and main deadlines will be provided via Aula Global and during the introductory session.

Evaluation

• Research paper – 25%
• Oral presentation about the reserach paper – 15%
• 2 Essays- Reading discussions -20%
• Final exam – 35%
• Class Participation - 5%

Students who fail to obtain a final grade of 5 will be allowed to take a resit exam (and obtain a maximum of 70% per cent of the grade) . Students will only be allowed to take the resit exam if they have previously submitted the research paper and the regular exam. 

Bibliography and information resources

• Bialasiewicz, L., & Maessen, E. (2018). Scaling rights: the ‘Turkey deal’and the divided geographies of European responsibility. Patterns of Prejudice, 52(2-3), 210-230.
• Diener A. and J. Hagen. (2012). Borders: A very short introduction. Oxford University Press, pp. 1-18.
• Dodds, K. (2021). Border Wars. The conflicts that will define our future. Penguin Random House
• Ferrer-Gallardo X. and L. Gabrielli. (2022). The Ceuta Border Peripeteia. Tasting the Externalities of EU Border Externalization. Journal of Borderlands Studies
• García-Sanjuán, A. (2018). Rejecting al-Andalus, exalting the Reconquista: historical memory in contemporary Spain. Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies, 10(1), 127-145.
• Gazzotti, L. (2020). Deaths, borders, and the exception: Humanitarianism at the Spanish–Moroccan border. American Behavioral Scientist, 64(4), 408-435.
• Gualda, E. (2021). Metaphors of invasion: Imagining Europe as endangered by Islamisation. In Europe: Continent of Conspiracies (pp. 54-75). Routledge.
• Kawtar Najib & Carmen Teeple Hopkins (2019): Geographies of Islamophobia, Social & Cultural Geography, DOI: 10.1080/14649365.2019.1705993
• Klinger, Julie Michelle. "Critical Geopolitics of Outer Space." Geopolitics. (2021): 661-665.
• López-Sala, A., & Godenau, D. (2020). In private hands? the markets of migration control and the politics of outsourcing. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 1-19. 
• Lucassen L. (2018) "Peeling an onion: the “refugee crisis” from a historical perspective." Ethnic and Racial Studies 41.3 (2018): 383-410.
• Marshall, Tim. (2018). Divided: Why We're Living in an Age of Walls. Eliott and Thompson.
• Marshall, T. (2021). The power of geography: Ten maps that reveal the future of our world. Simon & Schuster
  Pallister-Wilkins, P. (2022). Humanitarian Borders: Unequal Mobility and Saving Lives. Verso Books
• Van Houtum, Henk & Rodrigo Bueno Lacy (2020) The Autoimmunity of the EU’s Deadly B/ordering Regime; Overcoming its Paradoxical Paper, Iron and Camp Borders, Geopolitics, 25:3, 706-733